This book is steeped in Victorian flavor. An in depth fascinating read. My favorite parts are the King's Roads (magic mirrors). The cone of darkness that follows Jonathan Strange all about a lost version of Venice where mournful bells ring, dark waters lap at the quays and people disappear. But s...
This book had stayed unread in my library for years. What a mistake! Susanna Clarke engages the reader from the first chapter in such a way that the length of the book turns from menacing to promising. It features a decorated style of writing but stays amene and light. A deep construction of char...
I took up Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell for the first time when I was around 13. It was one of the longest (apart from Harry Potter) and densest books I’d ever attempted to read at the time, and given my then-recent forays into the world of video games my attention span was growing shorter by th...
Book like this are not written anymore. This feels like it should have been published in the nineteenth century and not because of the obvious setting, but because of the remarkable writing style. It is very similar to Austen’s that I’m sure she might have been delighted by Clarke’s work. Well, m...
And if we honour this principle we shall discover that our magic is much greater than all the sum of all the spells that were ever taught. Then magic is to us as flight is to the birds, because then our magic comes from the dark and dreaming heart, just as the flight of a bird comes from the hear...
"I am afraid that when I am gone you will not find it so convenient to have people knocking at the door at all hours of the day and night, asking for this or that piece of magic to be performed forthwith. There will be no one but you to attend to them. When will you sleep? I think we must persuad...